++The [not so] Big Bash++

The celebration began at pre-school on Thursday. At Wyatt's school we are asked to rotate bringing a healthy snack except for on birthdays. That day all rules are off. We made cupcakes that look like puppies. The cake was from a box but the frosting was homemade...there is nothing like homemade buttercream (as Wyatt was happy to demonstrate).

The idea seemed simple enough but all I have to say is I'm glad I bought a big bag of pretzels as my discard bowl was mighty full trying to get that part for the snout just right. The tongue? The snipped off front of a swedish fish.

We celebrated at home with a mini-party on Sunday. Mark was out of town on Saturday so we made Sunday the official Birthday Day.

He woke up that morning to find the birthday banner hanging. If you recall last year he was really into this banner and we ended up leaving it up until Christmas. Not sure we'll do the same this year. He got to open one gift before breakfast.

Claire liked the ribbon.

But Wyatt preferred what was inside.
We then celebrated modern-style with Grandma, Grandpa and Busha. If you look closely you'll see their shining faces on the computer screen.
Finally the chaos, I mean party, really began with the arrival of the cousins. Wyatt and Larson seem to woop it up whenever they are together. The addition of cake sure doesn't hurt!

Happy 3 Little Guy! May all your wishes come true.

++THREE++

The little guy turns three today. Getting to be such a big boy. So fast. I am on the perpetual quest of a nice photo of him sitting still. He doesn't sit still though, unless there is TV involved. I will keep at it. I may need to call in professionals.

Three is supposed to mean we are done with the terrible twos. I will see. With all the energy and vigor and zest for life comes some attitude at times. He makes us smile. He makes us laugh. He wears us out!

At three Wyatt loves: his Daddy best, closely followed by his lovey; playing outside; helping Daddy with household chores like mowing the lawn and taking out the trash; running...anywhere and everywhere; trucks, trains, firetrucks, diggers and obscure trucks like street sweepers and "vacuum vick" (if you have mighty machines, you know what I'm talking about); eating fruit, pizza, french fries and chips--how's that for a balanced diet? He eats more than this, those are just his favorites; Finding things that aren't toys and playing with them all day--this could explain strange sightings in our house like the breast pump tubing in the shower or a roll of shelf liner running across our foyer floor; asking questions...not just why but also how; cutting paper--usually into fifty million pieces; going places--most mornings he asks me "where are we going to go today?"; preschool--he can't get in the car fast enough on Tuesday and Thursday mornings; making Claire laugh (see below).
Wyatt is not so fond of: trying new foods; being told not to do something by a stranger; being told it is naptime or bedtime by his parents; talking to people he doesn't know; sitting still; using an inside voice; brown shirts (at least this is what he told me yesterday); sharing his toys with his sister; helping to clean up his toys (but he's getting better!); playing independently; sitting still and being photographed (ha ha).

Every day he amazes us with the things he remembers or the concepts he puts together. Everywhere we go in the car he talks to me (THE ENTIRE TIME) and asks questions about what he sees. What's in that truck? Where is it going? How does the driver get into the truck? How does that plumber get into the pipes to fix them? What is that man doing? Where does he live? and on and on and on. He sure keeps on us our toes!
It is so fun to watch him grow up and see the world through his innocent eyes. I laughed the other day watching him play "tag" with some older boys at the playground. One of the boys got Wyatt and grabbed his hands. To which Wyatt responded: "let's dance!"

Yes little guy, let's dance.

++Lucky Seven++

Someone we know snuck up and turned SEVEN months old this week! We did a little photo shoot with her in one of my dresses. I added a little vintage look because, well, sometimes I feel so old something from my childhood is vintage, right?

Our little girl is quite the spitfire. She gets more and more feisty every day. She's constantly getting into things she shouldn't. And when we catch her...she wiggles her little body as fast as she can to try to make a break for it with her "prize." Last week we found her with that little rubber stopper from the door stop in her mouth. Now that she has discovered those she's on the hunt for them in every room. I honestly think with this one we may need to take baby proofing to the next level.
On the flip side, she is such a good little girl. She LOVES her brother. He frequently gets this response from her: (ignore the grass on her face...it's just further evidence of my above point...I look away, she's covered in dirt and grass.)


She is NOT a cuddly baby. Somehow neither one of my kids are. Bummer. We pretty much get the stiff arm from her anytime we pick her up. This isn't a great shot but it shows the move.

She's loving eating these days. I think a lot of times at dinner she eats more than Wyatt. She'll gobble up pretty much anything we put in front of her. She loves to feed herself so I've been trying out all sorts of things on her tray. She loves to chew on big things. She'll go at a pizza crust like nobody's business. The other day she dropped her pizza crust and couldn't find it and burst into tears. Oh my. Tonight we had pot roast and I pulled out the handy food grinder and made a little meat/carrot/celery blend for her. This was the response we got with each spoonful. Not a fan?

A quick seven-month wrap-up:

++Loves: exploring on her own, chewing on things that aren't toys (like SHOES), shaking and chasing little plastic balls that rattle, feeding herself finger foods, her brother, smiling.

++Milestones: Four teeth, army crawls all over, can get to sitting, talks "ba ba ba" all the time, smacks her lips to let you know she wants to eat, drinks from a sippy cup...sort of.

++Doesn't like: getting her nose wiped, when she thinks she's alone in the room, napping, staying on her back on her changing table.

We sure do love our little bear!

++Becoming an expert++

I'm one of those people who learns best by doing. And each time I move I learn a little more. In fact, Mark and I laugh that we even have an agreed upon strategy for unpacking. Here are a few things that we've learned (if you, too, get to be as lucky as us and have enough packing paper in your family room for your son to literally SWIM in).
++Unpack the kitchen first. You are going to get hungry and thirsty and it will be nice to know where the cups are.
++Get the kids rooms done second. This whole move thing is shaking up their world and anything you can do to make the new place feel like home is helpful. (so...Wyatt's room is 100% done and Claire's room is just waiting for pictures to be hung).
++Put all the accessory/artwork stuff in one out-of-the-place room. This is what you are going to deal with LAST.
++This mainly applies if you have packers but, if possible, make sure everything is in the room where it belongs on the day of packing. It makes unpacking so much more bearable. We did not heed this advice this time and are paying for it.
++Purge, purge, purge. Moving is a great time to get rid of old stuff. We have one big garage sale in our future!
++Just relax and realize everything will take time.
And there you have it. My little tutorial on moving. We've unpacked all the boxes and have most of the stuff put away. It's just those pesky things that we aren't sure where to put that are lingering. Oh...and lots and lots of picture hanging. Our least favorite task.

++Ten on Tuesday++

1. We scored our new TV today. A flat screen above the fireplace. Kinda cool. I'm just glad that it's back out of the reach of the kiddos. Now what to do with the old one...
2. I forgot to mention in my post about Claire that she had two teeth. And since that time she popped out another, so now she's at three. I think the fourth is on it's way soon. I'm not sure Wyatt had four teeth on his first birthday.
3. I'm so missing a health club. Sadly, we mainly haven't joined because we haven't had time to go and join. I think this weekend it will be on our agenda.
4. Some of the grocery stores here have childcare centers where you can stash your kids while you shop. That one is new to me. Perhaps that is why everything seems to cost a dollar more than in Memphis. I haven't tried it yet but I just might have to. Now that Claire can sit up in the cart, Wyatt doesn't do so well. He suddenly HAS to sit in the front of the cart.
5. On the flip side, we got our first gas and electric bill and it's about a quarter of what it would have been in Memphis at this time of year. No AC has it's perks!
6. I'm starting to hit that low point that I think I hit with every move. You just reach a point where you are tired of not being settled, tired of not having friends and tired of not quite feeling like you belong. I just keep telling myself it will pass.
7. Someone is having a birthday at the end of next week. It wasn't easy but I made the call to just do a little gathering with the family (we can do that now since we can invite Susan's clan over). I just don't do things the easy way...you all know that, and I just don't have time to do it right. Plus, he honestly doesn't have anyone to invite. We have a couple of neighbor kids that we may invite over to share cake but I just wouldn't feel right having them bring a gift. Watch out, we're going all out for his fourth birthday to erase my guilt.
8. I'm working hard to persuade Wyatt to be a robot for Halloween this year. I'm going to try to make his costume. Hopefully if we work together I'll have better luck getting him to wear it than we did last year.
9. I haven't mentioned anything about it in a while but my dad is doing fine. He's not one to be happy just sitting around so I think he gets frustrated that he isn't back to 100% yet. He's getting there. We're looking forward to his visit out here in December.
10. No photos with this post. Believe it or not, I have taken way too many pictures recently and it has basically hogged all the memory on my computer so it takes forever to edit anything. I'm working on talking Mark into a new computer...it's not like we have anything else we need to buy these days...right?

++Someone++

Someone we know started preschool this week...

We're so proud of the big guy! No tears. No lovey. No potty accidents (yet). We got him in with the 3-year-olds and he seems to be doing just fine. His school is much more of a preschool than what we did in the past. They have circle time and sharing and music and chapel. The first day he came home with a necklace of Froot Loops. What kid didn't do that in preschool? How fun. Now I just have to make sure he doesn't figure out that some people eat bowls of that stuff for breakfast.

++Six Months++

Our Little Claire...has it really been half a year since you joined our family? You sure have a big personality in that little package of yours! A 16 lb. 1oz package to be exact (more than 4 pounds less than Wyatt at this age!)

Here's a little about you at six months:
++ You are such a happy girl. You rarely cry or fuss, even when your brother pulls you across the room by your ankles or when your mom keeps you out long past your nap time.
++You are ON THE MOVE. You don't like your Exersaucer too much. It cramps your style. You prefer to be on the ground army crawling your way around foraging for small toys and crumbs. You often come to find your mom wherever she is, and flash your big smile when she talks to you. You usually wear pants. Not so sure what the story is here.
++You are extremely inquisitive and will work hard to investigate something that catches your eye. In this case...that baby you see reflected in the kick plate.++You are loving your solid foods. We haven't found one you won't gobble up yet. We introduced you to Cheerios and Puffs right around six months (in an effort to give you something more appropriate than crumbs and paper scraps to gnaw on). You respond like a dog in excitement when we shake the container (is it bad that we do this to you?) You are also getting pretty proficient at the sippy cup. You are still pretty much 100% breastfed. You'll take the bottle if that's your option, we just haven't needed it much (a sad, sad commentary on the state of MY life these days). In general you just aren't really that into milk though.

++In addition to your mobility, you learned how to sit right around six months too. It actually kept you in one place for a few days, until you figured out how to get from sitting to your tummy more gracefully. You are still working on getting back to sitting though. The result is a move that resembles the downward dog.

++Did I mention you are much more cooperative at photo shoots than your brother these days? Your mom is excited to see that your eyes are starting to resemble your brothers more and more every day. In fact, we think that in general the two of you sure do look like siblings!

It's funny. The other day I happened to look at family photo we had taken last fall. It's up on our mantle here and I look at it every day. This time when I looked at it just struck me as off. There were only three people in that photo. Our family that felt perfectly complete at the time now looks funny and unbalanced to me without our littlest member.

++Fun with Grandma and Grandpa++

The arrival of Grandma and Grandpa meant Mark and I had a chance to try to get the house in some sort of livable order. For Wyatt and Claire, it meant lots of fun and attention.
Claire and her Grandpa are quite fond of one another. She even found that he has a little chair just right for her!

Grandma and Claire enjoyed each other too. Grandma quickly learned what we already know: that holding Claire is somewhat similar to holding a hamster with all that squirming and trying to get away.

The troops did take a break from the unpacking and head to Boeing family day courtesy of Uncle Brett. Cameras weren't allowed (and the resident photographer stayed home with the baby) but from what I hear there was a lot of fun at the airplane factory. Uncle Brett even treated the boys to airport play sets.

I think Grandpa probably took a few extra naps once he got home to recover from his trip. Did we mention we didn't have TV or Internet the whole time they were here?
We tried hard to get them a nice picture of the kiddos. The little one was getting her teeth and the big one was being his generally uncooperative self. As hard as I try to master the camera operating part of photography, cracking the kid cooperation code is the true challenge!

++Moving In++

Once again the time has flown and I'm forced to do a little back-tracking. Humor me. I'll try to catch up just in time for us to move again...just kidding.

We stopped by the check out the place the night we took possession. This is my favorite spot in the house. The view from the breakfast nook. Nothing but super tall trees all around us.

Moving day can be a challenge with two little guys underfoot. We especially had to make sure the littlest one wasn't literally under anyone's feet. So, I just strapped her on and she helped me check in the boxes as they came in. Note the lovely outfit on me. It was chillier than expected and that was the first sweatshirt I could find.
Once you move with professional movers and packers it's really hard to go back. They get all sweaty, they do all the heavy lifting and you just stand there and watch. Not bad. The bad part is that as much as Mark's company pays for all this stuff to try to make these moves as easy as possible on us there is no one but us (me, really) who can decide where to put things and put them there...and that is a whole lot of work. We're getting there. Slowly. I laugh as I unpack some things and think of all the places they have been. Uptown, Ann Arbor, Downtown, Southwest Minneapolis, Memphis and now here. We should be good at this by now.